Purple Pattern

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With a career in painting and drawing spanning from ages eleven to eighty-two, William Sommer was propelled by creativity and adventurousness. For most of the artist’s life, he worked as a lithographer to support himself but maintained a passion for painting, which was encouraged by financial support from the Federal government through the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s. That push to paint opened an opportunity to jumpstart his full-time painting career with paintings like this one. Each key component of Purple Pattern is marked by broad brush strokes, but by blending them with the more minute details Sommer accomplishes a whimsy, three-dimensional look. Despite the relative imprecision of watercolor, the artist could control the density of his flowing paint, contributing to his rendering of depth.

Keywords

American
Watercolor
Rural
Cow
Cleveland School
Regional
Trees